Essendon’s struggling season continued as St Kilda, particularly Nasia Wanganin Mallera, gave them a school holiday lesson in a 67-point win at Marvel Stadium on Sunday.
With a family crowd of 34,713 due to the winter school holidays, Wangin-Melira dominated the hapless, coachless Dons, shedding two taggers and showing once again the gulf between the current best Essendon players and the AFL’s elite.
Wanganeen-Milera equalled Lee Montagna’s St Kilda club record of 47 in 2013. But he wasn’t the only Saint to feast on the bombers. Bradley Hill and Max Hall got a share of the action as their side scored 10 goals in a row in the second term to lead by the same margin.
Together, Wangenen-Melira (24), Hill (24) and Hall (21) had more disposals at half-time than the entire Bombers team in the first term (66). And all three Saints finished with career-high disposal tallies.
Wanganeen-Milera also kicked a goal and gained 906 metres, while Hill collected 42 disposals, and Hall had 33 disposals, leaving the umpires with three clear candidates to share the vote on Brownlow Medal night.
Interim Dons coach Dan Solomon found few positives, aside from the tireless work and effort of Sam Durham and the growing partnership between young forwards Isaac Kaku and Nate Keady, who scored three goals.
While his shots at goal were off the mark, Caddy twice kicked the goal from a Kako pass, the second a handball to a football volley – even the easy goals were hard work for Don.
Essendon were close to the Saints on the scoreboard in the second half, but that meant little after their first-half dominance.
For the briefest of moments in the opening moments of the game, the Bombers looked poised to pounce on the Saints.
In the opening minute, the Saints won the footy and Wanganui-Melira looked to score inside the 50-metre arc, but Bombers veteran Zach Merritt dived in and almost brought down the Saints superstar.
But Wanganin Mallera got a foot on the ball and nobody from Essendon was quick enough to catch the footy, allowing the Saints to regain it and lay it off to Darcy Wilson, who grabbed the opening goal.
From that point on the man known as “Nas” dominated and the Saints never trailed.
With first Will Satterfield and later Archer Daywicks unable to reduce their impact, Vangenen-Melira had 13 disposals and one goal in the opening term. Indeed, the only thing limiting the Saints was their wasteful kicking for goal, and the situation was improved when ruckman Rowan Marshall threaded the needle with a shot from the right boundary after the quarter-time siren.
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Anthony Caminetti, Hull and Mitch Owens scored early in the second period, with Hull dispossessing Vangenen-Melira after a 50m penalty against Daywicks.
“At least he’s showing some fight, sticking to his job,” former Saint Nick Del Santo said on Cayo Sports.
It was that kind of day for Dawn.
A 10-goal run by the Saints finally ended late in the second period when Durham’s desperation forced a turnover in the half that ended with Kaku unselfishly handballing Caddy to score from the square.
The Saints set themselves to finish the job in the second half and they largely did so, although the Dons managed to get some promising attacks down the wing – it was too little, too late.
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